The official royal wedding announcements confirmed that Harry had chosen his older brother for the role.
It was a significant gesture.
The brothers had shared a childhood marked by public attention and personal loss. Their relationship had developed through experiences that few other people could fully understand.
Having William beside him on the wedding day demonstrated the importance of their family connection at that moment.
It would be misleading to interpret every reported disagreement as proof that William wanted Harry's marriage to fail.
The available accounts describe concerns about the speed of the relationship, while the wedding itself showed that William participated in the celebration as Harry's brother and best man.
Family relationships can contain affection, disagreement, worry, and support at the same time.
The royal wedding was an example of how those emotions can exist together.
Meghan entered a family with centuries of traditions
Marriage to Harry brought Meghan into an institution that operates according to traditions, protocols, and expectations that are very different from those of an ordinary family.
The royal household was not simply a collection of relatives.
It was also a public institution with established responsibilities, official engagements, and a long history of representing the monarchy.
For Meghan, the transition involved learning a new environment while adjusting to extraordinary public attention.
There were formal events, royal tours, charitable activities, and expectations about how members of the family should present themselves.
The couple's position also meant that private decisions could become public discussions.
What they wore, where they travelled, how they carried out engagements, and how they managed their family life attracted interest from newspapers and television programmes.
This was not an ordinary adjustment after a wedding.
It was a transition into a life where personal and public responsibilities were closely connected.
Harry had grown up in that world.
Meghan had to learn it.
The differences between their backgrounds may have contributed to the difficulties that emerged later, although it would be too simplistic to attribute every subsequent disagreement to one cause.
The couple's experience involved personal expectations, institutional pressures, media coverage, and complicated family relationships.
Their first year of marriage
The early period after the wedding brought a series of public appearances and royal engagements.
Harry and Meghan undertook official visits, supported charitable causes, and represented the royal family in different settings.
Their first international royal tour took place in October 2018, when they visited Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, and Tonga.
During that trip, they announced that they were expecting their first child.
The news attracted enormous attention.
For Harry and Meghan, parenthood represented another major step in the future they had chosen together.
In May 2019, their son Archie was born.
The arrival of their first child changed their family life and added another dimension to their public responsibilities.
Meghan later described aspects of the pressures she experienced during her time as a working royal.
Harry also spoke about wanting to protect his family from the negative experiences he believed had affected previous generations.
By this stage, the story was no longer simply about a fast-moving romance.
It was about two people trying to establish a family while navigating a complicated relationship with an institution that had existed for generations.
Was William's advice still relevant?
Looking back, it is tempting to ask whether taking more time would have changed the couple's experience.
Would Harry and Meghan have encountered fewer difficulties if they had dated longer?
Would William have felt more comfortable with the decision?
Would Meghan have found it easier to adjust to royal life?
There is no reliable way to answer those questions.
A longer courtship might have allowed the couple to experience more situations together before marriage.
It could have given them additional opportunities to discuss their expectations about family, work, public life, and the monarchy.
But time alone does not guarantee that a relationship will avoid difficulties.
People can date for ten years and still encounter unexpected challenges after marriage. Others can make a commitment relatively quickly and build a stable partnership over many decades.
The quality of communication, shared values, willingness to adapt, and ability to deal with conflict all matter.
William's reported advice may have been reasonable from his perspective.
Harry's decision may also have reflected a genuine belief that he had found the person with whom he wanted to build a future.
The important distinction is that the outcome of a marriage cannot be judged solely by how long a couple dated before getting married.
And Harry and Meghan's story was about to enter a period that neither brother could have fully predicted.
Part Four: The Decision to Step Away From Royal Life
A marriage facing challenges beyond the usual family disagreements
As the years passed, Harry and Meghan's relationship with the royal institution became increasingly complicated.
The couple continued to undertake public engagements, but questions about their place within the monarchy became more prominent.
There were discussions about the pressure of royal life, the expectations placed on Meghan, and the difficulties of maintaining privacy while remaining internationally recognizable figures.
The media environment was particularly challenging.
Stories about the couple appeared frequently, and disagreements over reporting became an important part of the wider relationship between the Sussexes and sections of the British press.
Harry had already expressed concerns about media treatment of Meghan before their engagement.
After the wedding, those concerns did not disappear.
Instead, the couple increasingly appeared to be looking for a way to control their own future.
In October 2019, during an interview connected with their documentary about their southern African tour, Harry acknowledged that he and William were experiencing different paths and pressures.
He did not present the situation as a simple disagreement about Meghan or the wedding.
Rather, he spoke about the difficulties of being brothers who were moving in different directions.
That distinction matters.
It would be inaccurate to claim that William's reported advice about taking more time directly caused the later family tensions.
The relationship between the brothers was shaped by many events, and the public does not have access to every private conversation that took place between them.
However, the growing distance between their lives became increasingly visible.
January 2020: A decision that surprised the royal family
In January 2020, Harry and Meghan announced that they intended to step back as senior working members of the royal family.
Their statement explained that they wanted to work toward becoming financially independent while continuing to support the Queen.
They also expressed a desire to divide their time between the United Kingdom and North America.
The announcement created an enormous reaction.
The couple's decision was not simply a change of residence or a reduction in public appearances.
It raised significant questions about royal responsibilities, funding, security, official duties, and the constitutional position of members of the royal family.
Following discussions with the Queen and senior members of the family, arrangements were made for Harry and Meghan to step away from their senior working roles.
The transition became widely known as Megxit.
By March 2020, the couple had relocated to North America, eventually establishing their family home in Montecito, California.
They were no longer carrying out official royal duties in the same way as working members of the monarchy.
For Harry, this represented a major change.
He had spent his entire life within the institution, but he was now attempting to build a different kind of future.
For Meghan, the move meant stepping away from the formal royal environment and pursuing a life that allowed greater control over her professional activities.
Their decision also affected their children.
In June 2021, they welcomed their daughter, Lilibet.
Together with Archie, she became part of the family life they were building away from the United Kingdom.
Why privacy became such an important issue
One of the recurring themes in Harry's public comments has been his desire to protect his family.